Zak's Digital Perspective

The Price We Pay

2011-07-25T09:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lapse in new posts and information, life has been coming at me quick lately.

Anyways, THIS is a shorter article I found on CNN.com about the rising cost of cybercrime and how it has been affecting the bottom line of major companies more every year. In my opinion, there is a direct link between the profits made using the technology and the amount lost to the cybercrimes. The reason being, that most companies use outdated security, both hardware and software, on systems that were not designed for the extensive use they are getting. I know a company I once worked for used an old Dell desktop machine with Windows Server 2003 to host their company website. While by all accounts the system could handle it physically, the security on the machine was questionable at best. One of the other programmers at the time suggested that we also store the client database on the same machine; luckily I was there when the idea was put forth so I could properly quash it.

In this age of technology and advancement, companies are having to cut corners in order to cope with the down economy and unfortunately one of the first things tossed is their digital security. Hopefully this report will give a little bit of perspective to the companies that are just trying to save money by avoiding security bills; because I guarantee the amount that they spend for a little security will pale in comparison to the amount they lose once a system is compromised at a higher level.

China is Getting Serious

2011-04-29T14:01:00.000-04:00

Link to Article

China has been a threat towards our nations computer infrastructure for years, and only now are they beginning to test the waters on our companies. Unfortuneately the fact that our companies and corporations are being successfully infiltrated means that they will have an even easier time with everything else. This is the reason that in the next 10 years it will be crucial that our nation pushes for computer security and digital forensics experts to divert or stop the full blown cyber-attack that China has the capacity to perform.

What's your opinion?

2011-04-19T08:54:00.000-04:00

Article Link

I came across the above article this morning while sipping on my coffee and trying to get my head out of an insomniatic fog, so I only really processed it at about 30% capacity. None the less, when I read the article header I at first thought about how terrible it was that a police officer who killed a man would be honored. However, as I read on (and later read about the original case) I realized that in the situation described, the officer had every right and a duty to other officers and citizens to stop the young man before he could harm anyone else. I do not understand why anyone would think that an officer being hit by a car (in a fire lane... by an obviously intoxicated man... who did not stop after hitting someone... and was driving towards innocent people...) is in any way an acceptable action. As is, the man behind the wheel would have been in prison 25 to life for hitting the police officer with his car, and it would have sealed the deal when he DID NOT STOP after hitting him. That's like saying "I did not know the gun was loaded when I shot him by accident, but I was drunk so I kept pulling the trigger and aiming at him."

I am one person who has always said that too much power is a bad thing, and that authority has it's place but in this case I concede that the officer in question had every right to fire his sidearm and deserves the award in question for potentially saving the lives of those around him.

Quick Post

2011-04-15T13:02:00.000-04:00

Program Link

Who thinks I should try out this program? It's online so it would be possible... But it would let me get an advantage with the specialized training.

What do you think?

2011-04-13T16:04:00.002-04:00

Article Here

This story kind of made me have to think. I would suggest reading it and/or watching it yourself and think about how you feel on the matter. After some consideration I feel that what the guy did was very ignorant and slightly moronic... But it should not have been a crime...

Secure Passwords and You

2011-04-12T15:07:00.001-04:00

Something that I have been thinking about for quite some time is the method of creating the perfect password for those account that I just can not have accessed. While I know of some of the latest trends in password rules make for strong passwords on average, this is not something that I want to limit myself to. I know having a capital letter, at least 8 characters, and a number in the password makes it difficult to hack an account of this type; but as most Computer Forensics junkies know, social engineering is a much more lucrative means of obtaining someone's password. While the arbitrary rules listed above make for a good starting point I would like to give my input as to a few other tricks that can help with the security of a password.

1) Misspellings

One trick I have learned in my time of password use is that when a word in a string of characters making up a password is misspelled, it becomes almost impossible for you to remember even your own password. This can be used to your advantage. Find a word that you personally know that you mess up often. Such words will stick with you, but it is not often that your tell anyone of this weakness. While this use of the word won't help you learn to spell it properly in future writing/typing, it will give you a stronger password.

2) Symbols

Something that is often not brought up in password rules is that some symbols are not allowed in the string of characters for a password. The trick here is that some symbols ARE allowed. It is not always the case, depending on rules set by the admins, but you could have a random symbol separating specific parts of your password in place of a space or any other use. This is a very strong method of securing a password, especially if you use it in a way that most people would find arbitrary.

3) The Past

My last idea is using things from the past as a guide for your password makeup. The trick of this would be to use something from your past that not everyone knew about or things that come from a family specific tradition or something your friend told you that stuck with you for any number of reasons. For example, imagine if you had found a turtle when you were younger in a pond near your house. Let's just say you live in the country... Anyways, your parents were firmly against having pets at the time so you hid him away and fed him in secret. One day the turtle was gone; and while this upset you it was never something your parent's knew of. Even if later in life you had more pets, they would never know the secret name of your hidden pet turtle. This would be a premium name to use for a password, because you are the only (OK...and maybe Joey from down the road...) person who even knows of this pet.

These are just a couple of my more thought out ideas in terms of password security, and is nowhere near an exhaustive list. Some day I may elaborate on this a bit more but for now, try these out and see if your nerd friends can break the new password.

A day of reflection.

2011-04-08T15:43:00.000-04:00

No article today, just a bit of rambling from me. Today I did alot of thinking, and for better or worse it let me focus on some things. First of all, I have decided that I absolutely HATE having ANYTHING done by another person. I soundly dislike waiting for someone else to do their job with no set deadline and no timetable beyond "eventually". Also, when the end result is a decision that must be made, and that decision is very important to me, it feels like someone is intentionally making me have to wait to make a decision that I don't particularly feel like making. You would think that it would be nice having time to consider, but I know what I want to choose, but I am not sure if I will be able to choose it. It's all up to the person doing their job or not.

Secondly, I really need to find a pattern that I can follow. I am a person who really does like to have a set of things to do in a day, and it has proven impossible for me to plan ahead. I know what needs done but I either have no ambition or no time to do them. I know this is mostly my fault but I also have been so exhausted lately that I just want to sit. Even that has turned into a chore...

Anyways, that was today's rant. Sorry about no intellectual stuff...

Just read the article...

2011-04-07T14:30:00.000-04:00

This article made my day.

Despite how bad my day is going, this article kinda gave a glimmer of happy.

Not sure how I feel on this case...

2011-04-04T08:48:00.000-04:00

CNN Marijuana Article

Like the title says, I am not sure how I feel about this case. While I do not agree with the tactic the feds used to raid these establishments, I also can tell I do not have all of the information. I would like to assume that there had been some circumstances that indicated illegal activities at these establishments but the article did not detail it enough. They focused more on the companys' reactions to the incident, and not on why the feds actually raided in the first place. This could be due to a lack of knowledge on CNN's end, or it could be that the feds did not release that information to the media yet. Either way, I do not know if I can decide if the raids were legitimate or not based on the limited information given in the article. In my opinion, there is plenty of room for law enforcement to bend the rights of businesses who work in a trade of this fashion, but it does not necessarily make it right. While I agree that this type of business needs strict regulation and constant observation, I do not think that the occasional police raid is justifiable unless absolutely necessary.

This is amazing!

2011-04-01T09:17:00.001-04:00

Justice is sweet

The thing I saw today was short, but sweet. It really gave me a new perspective on how the justice system works. I am talking about getting back at people in a fair way that might leave them speechless but when all is said and done, they even might smile about it. This kind of justice that I learned about is actually being used around the world for many different purposes. It mostly pertains to the digital world, but can be used in a many different situations as well. Just like what I read, I will keep this short. Check the link to see what I can't really describe myself.

This is just sad...

2011-03-31T13:09:00.001-04:00

Main Article

This is an article I found earlier today relating to prosecutors overstepping their bounds in a number of California cases. It is always painful for me to hear about situations like these, where a miscarriage of justice once again ruins the lives of those it is meant to protect. The problem that I see as common among all of these types of cases is that the prosecutor typically works in some way that is both underhanded and typically illegal; presumably to get a conviction. While I can understand it is their job to get those convictions, I doubt an employee at Wal-Mart would be commended for stealing money from people's wallets or giving away things from the shelves. I mean, their two primary functions are to obtain people's money and move merchandise. Right?

I can not be certain (because of different state's and county's rules) but most often I think this situation stems from the DA's office being an elected position. The best way to get into a higher seat of power or retain your current one is to have many convictions, damn the consequences. This is especially true among the ADA's under the current DA who most likely want to curry favor with their boss, or work towards over-taking him/her. While I do not discount the guilt of those who act dishonestly in court, I do feel it has more to do with the system than the individuals. I do not profess to have an answer, nor a suggestion, on how to fix this. However, I do feel that if something is to change fundamentally in the system, it will most likely need to be spearheaded by innocence organizations such as the ones mentioned in the article.

Old people should not make laws.

2011-03-30T08:59:00.002-04:00

The article that I posted is one of the most irritating stories related to computer crime that I have ever read. I just want to begin by saying that I am totally for the freedom and speech and expression, however there is a line that has been crossed in this situation. There is a difference between a company (in this case Facebook) having full rights to it's digital information and a company being allowed to obtain and hold in secret the effects of a criminal act. In my mind, this is comparable to a non-employee walking into his friend's office, lighting up a blunt, getting arrested, and the company being allowed to hold onto the illegal marijuana and do with it as they wish. The law was originally created to protect Facebook and other such sites from being held liable for what users did using their software/hardware. It was NOT intended to give Facebook an all access pass to digital information that crosses it's internet threshold. Seriously, what brilliant mind thought that a company should be given... Oh yeah... Old, rich, white guys... Sorry, I tend to forget that our lawmakers tend to think the internet is a series of tubes and that every company is just someone who tends the horses... But anyways, I just read this article and wondered if anyone else felt the same as me. There has to be some accountability on the part of Facebook, even if it just means destroying the digital information (as best they can) so that it can not be dispersed further.

Going to start blogging more!

2011-03-29T16:09:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that my few initial attempts at blogging were total failures, I feel that I now have a responsibility to myself to begin anew. The failure to write is my own doing; it was mostly due to my own lazy nature, but also because I felt no real reason to write my thoughts down. I have always had a bad habit of keeping my thoughts to myself except in certain personal arenas such as talks with my family, with my fiance, or in the CS lab. Having graduated and started my life in the "real world" I feel it will be important for me to express myself in a way that college used to let me do and I have little real time for recently. I fully intend to use this space as my personal page and possibly write down some of the research and intellectual ventures I hope to work on. If that becomes a more regular occurance, then I may make a blog dedicated specifically to my research. I want to start independantly looking into digital security and computer forensics on a more driven scale and possibly start taking some graduate level criminal justice classes in the near future if I can afford it. Until this starts up, I will just ramble like I used to.

On that note, working security is fun and boring at the same time. By this I mean that it is nice to help people at the company I do security for and it is nice to be in a position that is actually related to what I went to school for. The problem is, I thought the security position would be much more exciting than it has turned out to be. It most likely is just the site where I am working, and I will not complain because it beats all my old jobs. I just hope that in the meantime I can boost my resume a bit with some of my own efforts in learning and can work towards a more computer focused position in this company. They mentioned that a bank needed a security officer with programming experience but then I got placed at a medical facility's front desk. I don't want to push my luck however, because I know just how nice this job is and everyone that works above me treats me well... for a change.

2011-03-06T11:53:00.001-05:00

I can't wait to start my training at AlliedBarton tomorrow. That is all...

I found my blog again! :D

2010-06-20T12:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I know I have not been updating my blog in a very long time, but life doesn't always allow me time for internet use. I figured since I just updated my twitter for the first time in almost a year I could take a few minutes to update my BLOG! WOOOT!

Anyways, life is going alright and I am currently in the running for a supervisor job at OfficeMax while I am here in Buffalo, NY. Aside from that I will be moving into my lady's new house that she just bought on Tuesday. Big news in my little life, let me tell ya.

Also, she and I are starting to Vlog on youtube, so check it out if you have time.
http://www.youtube.com/user/amandasalisbury411

Anyways, peace out world,

-Siders

Time Spent

2009-12-08T23:46:00.000-05:00

Another hectic day of running around and tiredness... Woke up (almost) late and had to hustle to class and when I got there I took a quiz that was sorta difficult in Prosecution and the Courts. After the quiz I took about 5 minutes to eat some of my lunch then ran over to the place I do contract programming to work for a few hours. By the time this was done it was about 5pm and I knew I would miss my Honors Criminal Justice Fraternity meeting. I was correct in this assumption because when I arrived the lights were out and the door was locked so I headed to the computer lab for my shift.

A pleasant surprise however, for not long after I got to the lab an old friend who graduated a few years back came to visit the lab. We chatted and messed around for a bit then he headed out to the bar and I stayed in the lab to do some tutoring and get ready for my 45 minutes drive home. Of course it was raining/snowing but the drive was pleasant aside from that...

I also determined that I want to begin studying web development by making my own web page using a bunch of different techniques until I feel I know what I am doing as well as researching more on my topic of computer forensics. Once I begin these two avenues of study I will have more technical/research related posts but until then, just gonna keep blagging my day!

-Siders

Another Monday

2009-12-07T11:51:00.001-05:00

This is a quick mobile blog update because I haven't been able to this weekend. Had a great weekend with all sorts of stuff. Pre-christmas party at Lowrey's, White Wolf the next day, and not to mention talking to my sweetheart.

All in all it was a good weekend, with little sleep and lots of food, but now it is Monday and I'm remembering that I'm not as young as I once was and I need sleep in order to not want to punch kittens...

Anyways, hope everone else's Monday goes better than mine is!

-Siders
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

MMO's and Drinking

2009-12-04T20:20:00.000-05:00

Don't get me wrong, I love wasting time... However, my friend Rob has me looking into a game called "Eve" and I have a feeling that I may once again be falling into the MMO trap... I already decided to start playing WoW a bit again and frankly I can't afford another monthly payment. So, I will try the demo but if I don't like it right away I'm gonna trash it ASAP!

The second part of today's blag is that I am going over to a Christmas Party at a friend's house from college which will be a sort of going away party for the majority of the graduating seniors in the Computer Science department. There is a good chance that the few of us who are staying the night may get to playing cards, playing Apples to Apples (yes the party game), and drinking; and I look forward to this greatly. I'll have to pick up a case of beer on my way though so that I won't get stuck with crap beer...

Also, this weekend will be our Sunday White Wolf game as usual and the nice part is at least two of the players will be near by due to the proximity of the party to where we hold the game! Convenient!

Anyways, I'm tired and don't have much else to say... I'll probably have a more computer related post in the next couple days but for now I will just keep blagging!

-Siders

IMG00181.jpg

2009-12-03T19:01:00.001-05:00

Got bored so I took a picture of my red Swingline stapler at work...

It makes me happy because I can only think of Office Space when I see it!

Taking time to clean up!

2009-12-02T21:48:00.001-05:00

Spent the majority of the day (after class) doing all sorts of cleaning... First step was cleaning out my G-mail inbox; which was no small feat! I had over 4000+ unread emails in my inbox, and that was only the unread ones! So after probably 2-3 hours of sorting the inbox is now manageable again. After that I took time to clean my desktop on my laptop and organize all my files. I figured this would be a good idea since just about everyone bugs me about icons covering the entire screen...

The objective of the day was to finish my application for this local place that I want to get hired. The job will entail soldering electronic panels for light boards. The cool part is that they will give me all the parts and equipment I need for the jobs an then I take it home and work on it when I have time. Also, I looked into freelance programming on the web and considered my options there too.

Well, that's pretty much all that happened today so I guess that's all I have to say for post number two... Hopefully tomorrow will entail some more entertainment either on my end or whoever is reading this blag!

-Siders

P.S. Here is a picture of my nice clean desktop!

My first step into the Blogosphere!

2009-12-01T20:44:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm not too sure what to say here so I'm just gonna say something about my Thanksgiving break!

The weekend before the break began I visited my lady-friend in Buffalo, we had a grand time watching movies and generally wasting time. It was a pain that I had to go home on Sunday night but Monday I had an exam in my corrections class which obviously I couldn't miss. Of course, every other class was pretty much blow offs and Tuesday my class was cancelled outright so if not for that one test I could have just stayed there... Oh well.

That Tuesday though she came back down here to the Erie area to spend some time before Thanksgiving with me and my family. Once again, epic times were had and much shopping was done. She got me my Christmas gifts early and bought me a whole bunch of clothes and a $150 coat (which is probably the most comfortable coat I've ever worn) and got almost 35-40% off due to a sale as well as her employee discount. Pwnage!

It didn't last however... she had to go home early Thursday morning so that she could spend Thanksgiving with her family. Bitch of the matter is that she got sick on the ride home and ended up having to stay home while her family went to her aunt's house... I myself spent the day prepping my 25 page paper for my Criminal Justice Seminar class and eating more than I probably should have...

Friday through Saturday were more or less a blur... For both days all I did was write my 25 page research paper from the point I woke up to the point that I fell asleep at night. The subject was "Computer Forensics and the Use of digital Evidence" and although it sounds like a terrible subject it was one that I chose on my own. I worked my ass off on that paper and I expect nothing less than an A but won't be too heartbroken with a B. Time will tell since he won't have them read nor graded until finals week.

Sunday was pretty awesome however... I woke up at about 2pm and immediately headed downstairs to start my task for the day: Make a shitload of mashed potatoes. I had two full sized boxes of Hungry Jack instant potatoes and enough ingredients to do whatever I darn well pleased with them. After probably 20-30 minutes of work I was finished and ready with my "Potatoes of Epicness" which provides a -6 to hunger but a +10 to heart failure. I packed up my taters and headed over to Brent's house to pick him up before heading to my friend Bud's house (which is an old church) and had another bountiful meal at his annual Friends-giving with much rock music, beer, food, and video games!

Then Monday I turned in my 25 page paper, and besides that it was a total blur of not wanting to be there...

Today was a typical Tuesday, with a single hour and 15 minute class. However, today I went into the place that I do VBA programming on contract and worked on some of their issues for a couple hours (which helped break my slump of mood a bit) then I got back to Edinboro, settled into the lab, and started making this blog!

As a side note, I may use the word "blag" in place of "blog" because XKCD makes me smile...

-Siders